The Blacktails

BIOGRAPHY – THE BLACKTAILSBest described as "Stevie Ray Vaughan Meets Santana Meets the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack" - A nasty brew by The BlackTails
With influences drawn from American Roots Music to West Coast Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Surf Rock & Blues, The BlackTails are known for red hot musicianship and unique musical arrangements. The band blends a seamless fusion of classic songs and original material, with high energy performances and dynamic improvisation.
The group is comprised of players who have been deeply immersed in the NYC club and session scene for well over a decade. Individually they have shared the stage with blues giants like Muddy Waters and Clarence Gatemouth Brown as well as national acts like Little Feat, The Spin Doctors, Blues Travellers, and more. As they found themselves playing together as side men in various other projects, a connection developed and talk of bringing together a cohesive unit began to stir.
In May of 2004 the group was officially launched by a national producer who placed them in a summer residency at New York's prestigious Stanhope Park Hyatt nightclub lounge. It was there, along with other key New York venues, that they developed a strong and loyal home base following.
On the heels of their debut album, "Spy Lounge", Scotch Whiskey company Dewars drew them into the spotlight by licensing the track "Off the Rack" and promoting the group as a featured band in their 2006-2007 "Dewarisms" national advertising campaign.
Momentum continued to build during the summer of ’07 through a series of festival appearances and radio play both in the US & overseas (Canada, Europe and the UK). The band re-pressed their album 2 times and buzz about the group began to build on social networks like myspace and other sites. Later that year they were invited to play at one of NYC’s top venues, The Iridium, which sold out 3 weeks before their performance.
While the album “Spy Lounge” features original material, the live show blows out to include classic Film Noir / T.V music themes, like Mission Impossible, James Bond, The Pink Panther and more. In the tradition of classic groups like The Ventures, and Booker T & The M.G's, as well as, modern pioneers like Brian Setzer, “Spy Lounge” is a raucous cocktail of Groove, Vibe, and Fun.
Outside of touring and writing new material for The BlackTails, the founding members of the group Peter Farrell and David Blacker, are partners in a music studio and production business located in Manhattan's Soho district where they work as a writing, arranging and production team for film, television and the music industry. Their work has appeared in numerous commercials and television programs in the US and UK for well known brands like Fuse Network and Virgin Media. Together they also wrote and produced 2 roots based children’s' albums “Baby Blues” and “Swingset” with partner Carl Fospero. Rounder Records took an interest in the project and began distribution nationally to chains like Borders Books and Zainey Brainey.
THE PLAYERS
David Blacker (Lead Guitar, Vox): David Blacker is founder of Blackermusic Productions and his guitar playing and composition havd been featured on multiple original albums, television shows and commercials. His playing and approach to music is deeply influenced by different styles of American Roots of music, and the blues in particular. He is mostly self-taught, having learned by ear, and following the roots of popular music backward to greats like Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker and T-Bone Walker. He has studied jazz theory and improvisation with one of Ornette Coleman's "Prime Time" guitarists, Chris Rosenberg. David is currently a featured musician and instructor on Truefire.com where he has sold hundreds of downloads featuring original music and guitar instruction.
Fredi Meli (Bass Guitar): Swiss national Fredi Meli spent many of his formative years, writing and touring throughout Europe before he came to the US to study at Berklee College where he built his American roots performing with notables such as Lionel Loueke (Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter), Akiko Grace (Ron Carter) and others. Over the years his work has been featured on TV, in Off Off Broadway productions and he is a regular at top session gigs in NYC.
Derek Landel (Drums, Percussion): Hailing from the great state of NJ, Derek graduated from Syracuse University where he founded the band “Professor Spoon” which won the 1993 SAMMY Award for Best College Band. This landed him on an East Coast tour in 1994. At Berklee Derek performed with many notable up and comers including the John Dougherty Trio which went on to play with George Benson. His work has also been featured in Off Broadway musicals, TV Shows (“The Dave Tutera Party Planner”) as well as on the cruise ship “The Spirit of Boston” where he performed with keyboardist Alex Lacamoir (musical director of Broadway’s ‘Wicked”). He is a passionate board gamer and can be found every year at the World Board Gaming Championships in Lancaster PA!
Peter Farrell (Keys, Guitar, Sax, Vox): Farrell brings an international sensibility to his music having been born in Puerto-Rico, raised in Tokyo (11 years) and schooled at traditional boarding schools in the UK. As a multi-instrumentalist he has toured and recorded all over the world with his first recording session at the age of 6 in Tokyo’s famous NHK studios. In the mid 1980’s he returned to the US and quickly became a member of the renowned Mercer County Symphonic Orchestra and the Youth of America, which toured extensively throughout Europe. In the 90’s one of Peter’s bands “Wooster Sang” became finalists to Music Magazine’s “Best Unsigned Band” contest sponsored by Atlantic Records. Peter’s work has been featured on over a dozen original releases and, as a guest recording artist, on over 30 nationally produced records. One record of jazz standards “Angel Ayes” was picked up by SONY music for distribution in 2005. Peter graduated from Hobart & William Smith (Geneva NY) and spent 4 years driving 600 miles roundtrip every weekend to perform at clubs in NYC.
The group performs at festivals, clubs and private engagements throughout the country and is represented by Ligeti Artists LLC. For more information, please visit myspace.com/theblacktails Purchase CD: please visit theblacktails.com
CONTACT INFORMATION: [email protected] or tel 917-216-5559